Posted on 06/21/2005 1:28:55 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
The only way you can get halfway decent prices from WD is to surrender personal info. Otherwise, they screw you over like a tourist.
Thanks for the ping Swamp Fox!
Ah yes, the on going saga of po' little Winn Dixie. They were doing this when I was in Savannah in the 60's and 70's.
The old store at the Bacon Bridge shopping center was closed and a beautiful new store was opened, it did great business but as soon as they heard that Publix was coming they closed that store and opened aa second one on the other side of town.
Winn Dixie has been in the business of opening and closing stores and laying off people ever since I can remember. They finally closed the last store here in Summerville this year. They'll pop back up in a few years and go through the whole routine again. Oh well, I don't think I shop there the next time. I'll just stick Mr. K's Piggly Wiggly. They know their customers and most of us here in Summerville like the fact that they recognize you when you walk in the store.
Aren't small towns great?
I'm not looking for any particular version. My sister has worked for them for many years. And no, not all of them will find their old jobs with a new company. Then there's also the retirement accounts which are hurt badly by the WD stock plunge. If you don't blame management, then you probably don't know anyone who has been with them for years and years.
Can't say I'm surprised. We had a Winn-Dixie a mile away from our apartment in Columbia (Decker Blvd and Trenholm Road Extension, for those who know the area). We did shop there occasionally, but for any sort of significant food run, we'd drive an extra three miles to go to a Publix or Kroger waaay out Two Notch Road fighting the worst traffic in town to do it. WD was that bad.
Their produce was substandard, their meat was overpriced, we ended up with moths in *multiple* boxes of cereal we purchased there, the staff was lousy, the clientele was marginal...the only reason we ever went there was because it was the only supermarket reasonably close to our place if we needed something quick.
Up here in Richmond, interestingly enough, the #1 supermarket chain is not national. It's a local chain called Ukrops. They have a 22% market share counting Wal-Mart and similar places, 40% counting only supermarket-type stores. And they have this dominant position despite (a) not selling alcohol and (b) being closed on Sundays. Their prices aren't really exceptional, but they do it with well-built stores, superior selection and excellent customer service. It's a family-owned chain, very community-minded Christian folks. We shop there and it's a pleasure.
I do miss Publix though.
}:-)4
Ohio isn't what I would call a yankee state. It borders on being midwestern.
Store sizes can be in excess of 120,000 square feet! That is HUGE!
It is Fortune Magazines #1 company to work for for 2005
From a TechCentralStation article...
The Gazette, a business journal for the counties of Maryland surrounding Washington, D.C. reported recently that Maryland's wealthy suburbanites are driving 25, sometimes 30 miles to go, of all places, to the grocery store. They motor past what would likely be a dozen Giants and Safeways, past quirky grocers like Trader Joe's, and several other higher-end stores like Whole Foods and Harris Teeter, all the way out to Sterling, Virginia.
They're going to Wegmans
More...
Move past the hot foods, and find a deli stocked not only with your basic hams, salamis, and turkey breast, but also with the most exotic and obscure French, Italian, and German meats a shopper can conjure. Each store boasts 500 types of cheese. There also 700 varieties of fresh produce, from heirloom tomatoes to truffles that go for hundreds of dollars a pound. The store tries to buy locally, to keep down shipping costs and keep things fresh. There's a mozzarella bar, an olive bar, a pepper bar, and a hummus and Middle Eastern bar. There's a wine section, and a wine-tasting room. The store's prepared foods section is run by a former chef at the Ritz-Carlton. There are rows and rows of fresh meat of all kinds, at all levels of preparation -- every cut, basted in dozens of marinades, stuffed, half-cooked, and fully cooked.
more...
This supersized souk (it's twice the size of most large grocery stores) has its competitors worried. And rightly so. In its first year of operation, Wegmans' first D.C.-area store did more business than the six area Harris-Teeter stores combined.
Wegmans is the ultimate grocery store.
WOW. Sounds awesome!
Sounds like the same business model as HEB's Central Market.
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